I can only guess that Ischia at 60 degrees is sluggish, or when I added it to my dough on initial mixing it was not active enough - I took it from the fridge & fed it and after 90 minutes it had risen about an inch.

The chart calls for 49 hours. Another 2 hours at 70, and you might have been pretty close to ideal and right at 49 hours. This why I always say to start watching it at least 8 hours before you need the dough so you can adjust the temperature up or down in those last 8 hours to have it right where you want it, when you want it.

Ischia at 45 hours not active enough, set at 70 for two hours pics shows ok activity but needed dinner. Baked crust very tender, but not enough oven spring - will try again soon

I am wondering if I may be systematically under fermenting a bit. This dough looks pretty close (to me) to the picture of a dough "about ready" and not as developed as the "the most rise I want." I usually bake when it looks "about ready." Should I be rising more (as in "the most rise" or almost there)?

I am wondering if I may be systematically under fermenting a bit. This dough looks pretty close (to me) to the picture of a dough "about ready" and not as developed as the "the most rise I want." I usually bake when it looks "about ready." Should I be rising more (as in "the most rise" or almost there)?

I think it's personal preference. I've had some great pies that are way more risen than what I do. I almost never let my do go to "the most rise I want." I'm generally about in the middle between them.

The chart calls for 49 hours. Another 2 hours at 70, and you might have been pretty close to ideal and right at 49 hours. This why I always say to start watching it at least 8 hours before you need the dough so you can adjust the temperature up or down in those last 8 hours to have it right where you want it, when you want it.

Good point. Unfortunately I was at work and was unable to watch the dough as closely as I would have liked. Mark

Mitch (mitchjg) asked me a question about using the data in the model to calculate the effects of multiple time/temp combinations on the same dough. Looking at the model, it occured to me that you can easily do just that with the model exactly as it is. I added a few more columns (starter%) to the chart so there is more data to work with (less extrapolation needed). I also stripped off the red zones. The data itself and model are unchanged. You could use this same technique with the chart on the first page of this thread. The charts below are optimized to make it even easier.

Example 1Say you made a batch of dough w/1.5% starter that normally takes 48 hours at 64F to be ready. Being that it is winter and cooler in the house that normal, your fermentation set up (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,18509.msg179991.html#msg179991) is running cooler than normal - 60F rather than 64F. How could you adjust your workflow to have the dough ready on time? Perhaps you could move it to the oven with the light on which is holding at about 80F, but for how long? This is the problem I faced over the past couple days.

We know from the model that 1.5% starter @ 60F should take ~69hours (1 below). I fermented the bulk for 24 hours at 60F. I then balled it and put it back into the box at 60F for another 12 hours – a total of 36 hours at 60F. According to the model, I should need another 33 at 60F (2), but the model tells us a whole lot more than that. Every data point up and down that column represents a time/temperature combination that will finish the dough. All you have to do is slide down to 80F, and you see that dough will be ready in 9 hours at 80F.

I hadn’t thought about doing this when I made my dough Thursday night – nor on Saturday morning when I moved it to the oven with the light on. It turns out however, that my results were spot-on what the model would have predicted.

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that dough doesn’t instantly go from 60F to 80F. Actually, my oven with the light on is closer to 85F, but the average dough temp over the 9 hours was probably around 80F – just a gut feel adjustment. You might need to make adjustments recognizing this sort of thing. The shorter the window of time at a temperature, the more important the adjustment becomes as the dough temperature transition time becomes a much larger portion of the total time.

I recently used this creative method for using Craig's model for multiple fermentation temps. I was flabbergasted that it worked! Perfectly!!

And it reminded me how lucky we are to have guys like TxCraig --- and so many other brilliant members --- on this forum. Thanks again Craig!